Episode 7: An Interview with Lyall Harris

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with book artist Lyall Harris. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to release the episode before the opening of Lyall and Patricia Silva’s exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library in June. It took some time and YouTube tutorials, but I managed to clean up the audio to make it somewhat listenable, and I do believe that the content in the conversation truly outweighs my shortcomings with recording. The other good news is that Lyall and Patricia’s exhibition is still going on view and there will be a panel discussion on creative collaboration on September 9, 2017. 

Lyall Harris is a book artist, writer and painter who lives and works in Charlottesville, VA, and Florence, Italy. Lyall's artwork has been exhibited in more than one hundred solo and juried group shows and recognized with over twenty awards. She has been the recipient of fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, NALL Foundation in Vence, France, and San Francisco's Grabhorn Institute. Lyall is also the co-founder and co-editor of The Sigh Press literary and art journal in Florence, Italy.

Meeting Places/Luoghi d’incontro is the collaborative work by Lyall and Florence, Italy-based book artist and printmaker Patricia Silva. After having met in Florence, Lyall Harris and Patricia Silva embarked on a series of twelve collaborative book art projects since 2014.The artists set constraints for the process, both of materials and time, which forced them to work in an immediate, intuitive and exploratory way. The varied work addresses issues and histories from their shared and layered perspectives as artists, mothers, daughters, wives, and expats in a changing and complex environment.

Meeting Places is now on view at the San Francisco Public Library through September 14, 2017.

Links and Additional Info:

Lyall Harris

The Sigh Press

Meeting Places/Luoghi d’incontro collaborative work by Lyall Harris and Patricia Silva is on view at the San Francisco Public Library through September 14, 2017.

Books in the Wild

Episode 3: Artist Talk with Julie Chen

Every Moment in a Book: Three Decades of Work by Julie Chen is now on view at the Allen Library Special Collections at University of Washington through June 30, 2017. On March 16th, a reception and artist talk was held and I was lucky enough to attend and record the momentous event.

Julie Chen is a renowned book artist and professor of book art at Mills College. Thirty years ago, Julie founded Flying Fish Press, a publisher of limited-edition artists' books, in Berkeley California and has remained at the forefront of the book art world since. Julie's books are innovative and impeccably crafted, thoughtful and sincerely moving. She has been an inspiration, mentor, and generous educator to many -  myself included. I am so very excited to have been present and have the opportunity to see Julie's retrospective exhibition in Seattle, and to hear her inspiring talk (which I am also excited about sharing with you!)

Note: There are moments in the talk that reference particular works of art. Because I felt that there were still many points that would be of interest to listeners. I have added images of works that were referenced (along with the time that they are referenced in the talk) to the Reading List page.